


Facing the Consequences

by thescorpiondoctor



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Cuteness and fluff, Cybertron, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Original Character(s), Overcoming Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Swerve's Bar, character reunion, tfp and mtmte crossover, transformers after the war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-07-29 22:25:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16273598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescorpiondoctor/pseuds/thescorpiondoctor
Summary: As Cybertron is being rebuilt after the war, a young femme returns to the world she had always heard tell of from older bots. But when she encounters some familiar faces in Swerve's bar, she must come to face the demons of her past and come to grips with how her supposed death affected the bots who used to know her.





	1. Chapter 1

The ship's engines roared as it exited the cybertronian atmosphere, leaving a lone figure behind. Her ebony, pale mint green, and indigo plating was silhouetted against the stars as she stood in the ruins of a once beautiful and glorious city.

 _Well... this is it._ She thought.  _This is home..._  


The tiny femme choked back tears at seeing the gleaming metal landscape, knowing full well that her ride had left her behind. She had told them to. This was something she had to do alone. After years of fighting, it was finally over. The war was over, leaving behind a barren landscape in desperate need of repair. And yet in the ashes left by the war, embers were already kindling for the revival of the desecrated world. Lights shone across the landscape, flickers of hope and beacons in the night. And light meant life. 

She could feel her spark pulsing within her. She really didn't know what to expect. In the years since she had left Earth, the home she had always known, she had been to a lot of worlds and she'd seen things and done things she never would have before. She'd changed. Not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. Every moment in space had been full of new experiences, new challenges, new enemies and allies, and the journey had been rigorous and yet freeing at the same time. For once, she was a free bot. She answered to no one. No one would be punishing her if she got her energon spilled in the halls or if she improperly carried out orders. No one would be telling her what was right and what was wrong. The time in space had been a test run, a time of coming to grips with her newfound freedom and a time of discovering who she really was. And now that she knew, or at least thought she knew, she was finally ready to come home. 

Home was a difficult term to grasp for the young femme. She had had many homes in her time, and she was unsure if she could really consider Cybertron to be her home after the fondness she had of the other places she had taken up residence. It was her first time seeing the planet in person, and it wasn't the cybertron she had always imagined, the place that the many others of her kind had seemed to look back on with a sweet longing reminiscence. This place was broken, burned to the ground, and desolate. It was a husk of its former glory, underpopulated and in need of repair. A lot of progress had been made in rebuilding the planet in the vorns after the war had ended, yet there was a lot of work that still needed to be done before it could ever rival its former glory. 

She stepped forward, feeling the metal ground beneath her pedes as the cybertronian air coursed through her ventilation systems. Her wings unfolded from her back, having been altered in order to help change her appearance not long after she had left Earth. Other things that had changed since she had left were her shoulder plating and the various armor pieces she wore. The femme also had a mask over her faceplate, because after the things she had been through she was wary of showing her face to anyone she had known prior to the end of the war. Now that it was over, she wanted to integrate herself into the cybertronian society and become a fully fledged citizen and live out the rest of her life as it should have been. She was on her own now, and she knew it. She had to do this alone. She couldn't bring the bots who had helped hide her all these years into any complications that might come up should she run into anyone she used to know. 

The young femme transformed, her plating sliding effortlessly over itself as her body changed shape from the small femme into a small, delicate aircraft. She knew her alt mode from earth would be a dead giveaway, and so she had taken time to find a new alt just until she was situated. She took off, feeling the freedom of the air coursing over her wings. It had been some time since she'd gotten a good long flight in, and she was eager to test her metal in the cybertronian skies. Her spark pulse within her chest. Never before had she felt so alive...and yet...so alone. A couple other flight frames passed at a distance. She recognized their menacing silhouettes in an instant and almost turned back around, if only to steady her course towards the city at the realization that the former decepticon drones would not be using her as target practice this time. And if they did, she was armed and quite prepared to defend herself at all costs.   


Down below, a few former autobots and neutrals walked through the streets while others chose to drove. Most of them were bots she didn't recognize. She was glad for that factor. There were even a few former decepticons here and there, walking about and going about their lives, engaging each other in conversations. There seemed to be some slight tension between the factions, but there was no longer any hostility between them as there had been before. She could barely believe her optics. 

There was a small internal click she could hear in her processor, and she could feel the needle in her fuel gauge take a slow left. If she didn't land somewhere now, there wouldn't be enough fuel left to make a safe landing. It was a bad habit she'd picked up from an old friend of hers, a mech she had considered as almost like a father to her to go for way to long without refueling. She descended and landed not far from a place with a glowing neon sign and a seemingly welcoming atmosphere. She then transformed and tilted her helm, scrutinizing the sign.  _Swerve's bar_ it read. She raised and optical ridge under her mask. 

 _They'd always told me I was too young to drink..._ she thought, crossing her arms and shifting her weight in slight annoyance.  _Well frag them and all their stupid rules. I'm older than I used to be and that should count as old enough. And plus, my systems could use a nice long overdose of energon. After the couple of vorns I've had, primus I need a drink. Plus, who knows where the nearest refueling station is from here. And it's not like I'm asking any of the locals. This'll do as good as anywhere. I've always wanted to try high grade engex._ She thought to herself as she stepped inside, taken aback by the pulsing sound of the cybertronian music. This definitely wasn't Earth, and for that, she was a bit intimidated by all the unfamiliar surroundings but she was also excited and curious and eager to finally get a firsthand experience of peacetime cybertronian culture.   


She strolled in like a cat stepping in from an alley, standing as tall and straight as she possibly could and trying to look like she thought she owned the place. She was glad that her mask hid her nervous faceplate. Her wings folded out, making her appear a bit larger. At hardly fourteen feet tall, she knew she could easily be mistaken for a minicon. She strolled right up to the counter, feeling the gaze of many of the older mechs in the joint looking at her in a bit of shock and surprise as if there was something unusual or wrong with her. Some just stared, while others went back to their drinks or started whispering among their friends. 

"You don't look like you're around here. I don't think I've seen you before. So, what can I get for you tonight?" The short, red and white mech behind the counter called out, his smile so wide it looked like it might just fall off his face.   
  
The femme looked up at the menu, and then she looked back at the mech and said plainly, "I'm needing something that'll give me a fresh start and wipe my systems clean. So give me the strongest stuff you've got."

"Ha..." the mech chuckled a bit, before she shot him a mildly impatient glare. "Wait, you're not joking, are you?" he asked.   
  
She shook her head.   
  
"Yeesh. Alright. Are you sure? Some of that stuff could put a bot like you out for a week. And you seem like a nice face to have around. I usually don't decline customers, but aren't you a little well...small....for that kind of stuff?" he replied.   
  
She pulled a few credits out from her subspace and placed them on the counter. 

He stood there for a moment, gaping at the femme. "It's your frame..." he said with a shrug. "You know I could get fined for this, right?" 

She blinked incredulously. 

There was a sound behind her of someone approaching the counter, approaching her from behind. "You sure you're old enough to be drinking high grade, kid?" a gruff voice said, sounding slightly amused as the owner of the voice placed a servo on her shoulder. She spun around to face him, brandishing her claws and preparing to draw her blasters, only to come face to face with someone she had once known.   
  
 _"Wheeljack?!"_ She gasped aloud, relaxing her servos as her wings gave a little twitch.   
  
He grinned wearily, that same old smug grin she had remembered from her time with the Autobots.   
  
"You remind me of someone. Do I know you?" Wheeljack said with a slight smirk.   
  
"I...no. You must have mistaken me for someone else." She quickly said, feeling her spark sink at the ginormous lie she had just told.   
  
Wheeljack frowned for a second, before releasing her shoulder. "I would've sworn...must be the high grade." he said, before he placed a couple of credits on the counter before gesturing to Swerve before leaning over the counter and whispering something in his auditory receptor. He then turned back to her and smiled weakly. "Drinks on me kid." he said, before he turned and walked back to a table near the back.   
  
She paused for a moment, taken aback by the encounter. The bot behind the counter was quickly filling a glass, the smile having returned to his faceplate. He placed the glass on the counter and pushed it towards her before pushing back the credits she had placed down. She was a bit startled by the gesture, but she took the glass and the credits nonetheless. She then turned and headed off in the direction that Wheeljack had gone off in, picking a table right next to his where she could eavesdrop on his conversation. 

"I swear, maybe I've had one too many, but I swear it's her! Sounded just like her, too!" She heard Wheeljack say. She kept her back turned, sitting in the shadows where it would be hard for them to see her, employing the many tactics of spying she had learned from growing up on the decepticon warship known as the Nemesis. 

"That's impossible!" another voice barked out. This one was way too familiar, a voice she'd remembered since her days as a sparkling. "She put a blaster to her helm as she was broadcasting to the entire Nemesis. We all looked for ages for what was left of her, but by the time we got there, there wasn't a trace!"   
  
The femme swallowed hard. So they thought she was dead, didn't they? She felt a sinking feeling of guilt welling in her spark. She had figured they might think something like that, but hearing it out of the intake of someone she had once known so well, it shattered every fiber of her being. 

"EXACTLY! Was there any evidence of an explosion? Did anyone ever find the body?" Wheeljack countered, banging his fists on the table. 

"Well of course not! As far as we know, someone must have took it or maybe M.E.C.H. got to it or something. I would have had to do the autopsy if they ever did find her!" Knockout growled, his fists shaking. He shuddered. "After what they did to Breakdown, I can only imagine what they could have done to Stormshift...even after...we dealt with Silas..."   
  
Her frame went stiff at the mention of that name.  _Her_ name. The name she had chosen for herself all those years ago as a way to help herself cope with her fear of the storms that she saw passing outside the Nemesis when she was still so young and new in the world. There was something she heard in Knockout's voice... the way he said her name, it was different than he'd ever said it before, as if there was a hint of meaning to it that had never been there when he'd been telling her to scrub out the energon tanks or to stop getting tossed around by the vehicons. It was as if maybe, just maybe he had actually cared that she was gone.   
  
"Were there any tire tracks or burn marks at the location of her 'death'? Any signs of a struggle? Anything at all that would indicate where she was taken?" Wheeljack said harshly.   
  
Knockout shook his head. "There was nothing. Not even an indentation in the ground where she might have fallen. And believe me when I tell you we checked and double checked and triple checked the location! There's no way she could have survived that shot, and her signal went immediately offline as it happened."   
  
 _That's because I was pulled through a space bridge when it happened. I was pulled through and before I knew what was happening I was on the other side of the galaxy. You didn't receive my signal because the ship was cloaked and I never got a chance to tell you otherwise because if I went back to the decepticons I'd have been forced to do who knows what else. And if I'd rejoined the autobots I know for a fact they never would have forgiven me for what I did to Snowflair. I had full intentions of ending everything that day and things would have stayed out exactly as you think if I hadn't been pulled through that space bridge._  


"Well then how can you explain a bot looking and sounding just like her just waltzing in to this very bar?" Wheeljack replied, crossing his arms and staring at the empty glass of engex sitting on the table in front of him.   
  
"I have a perfectly logical explanation for that, and my diagnosis is as follows! Wheeljack, you're drunk!" Knockout snapped.   
  
"Not drunk enough apparently." Wheeljack growled, rolling his optics.   
  
Stormshift stared long and hard at her own drink, lifting up her mask for a second and taking a long sip, hoping that she'd be able to forget everything that happened and maybe wake up passed out on the floor after they had left. She paused for a second and frowned. The 'high grade' she'd just taken a sip of tasted like unleaded regular old energon. She'd been expecting it o taste different, but what would she know? She'd never drank before. 

"I bet you're drunk enough to walk right up to the bot who looked like her and ask 'em if it is her." A third voice cut in to their conversation.   
  
"Shut up, Whirl. Nobody asked you." Wheeljack snarled.   
  
"Wanna bet?" Whirl shot back. "In fact, I bet I can just go do it myself. If you really wanna know then just ask."   
  
"I did. I put my hand on her shoulder and asked her if I knew her. I'm pretty sure 'Stormshift' would have said yes." Wheeljack replied, beginning to doubt his own perception.   
  
"What if she was lying?" Whirl challenged.   
  
"This is  _Stormshift_ we're talking about. She was good at pulling distractions and spinning tales, but terrible at telling a lie." Knockout said, taking a long sip of his engex. "I'd know. I practically  _raised_ her until that half-starved sleep-deprived seeker came along and took her under his wing. We all thought it was a joke at first, especially Starscream and Megatron. Until she came waltzing into the medbay with shrapnel in her back struts and said she was and I quote 'stepped on by a vehicon during training.' I'd seen what she looked like when she'd gotten stepped on. Her plating is surprisingly tough for something that size. And then the times she tried to talk her way out of cleaning the energon tanks? She's good at stalling and avoiding things she doesn't want, but you can always tell if you look at her wings. They do this little twitch thing when she's nervous, and I tell you, lying makes that kid nervous." Knockout sighed heavily and leaned back in his seat. "You try explaining that." he added, folding his arms over his chestplate in smug satisfaction. 

Wheeljack sat there for a moment, before he raised an optic ridge. "Wait a minute...." he said, narrowing his optics and looking in the direction of Stormshift's table.   
  
 _Uh-oh..._ she thought, as her wings gave that annoying telltale twitch. She quickly chugged down the rest of her drink and then slammed her mask down back over her face. She then pushed out her chair and started quickly walking towards the exit, hoping to escape before they found her out.   
  
"If you really wanna find out, you better hurry because I think she's getting away." Whirl taunted, his singular yellow optic blazing smugly in his faceplate. 

At that, Knockout and Wheeljack locked optics.   
  
"Well?" Whirl cut in, looking back and forth between the two of them. 

The two mechs pushed out their chairs at the same time, staring each other down. "If it isn't her, you owe me." Knockout said.   
  
"If it is her, you owe me." Wheeljack cooly replied, before the two of them began walking slowly towards her from either side.   
  
"I'll just watch." Whirl said. "You can call me when you need me to blow something up." he added, crossing his long legs on top of the table.   
  
"Heeey, that's my job!" Wheeljack called over his shoulder.   
  
"Will you two cut it out? We're not blowing anything up, especially not near my finish!" Knockout snapped.   
  
Stormshift used the opportunity of their distraction to make her way towards the door, hoping they'd argue a little longer so she could slip out undetected. She looked over her shoulder to check their position and vented in relief when she saw Knockout and Wheeljack staring each other down like they were about to fight. And Whirl was just watching them, seeming entertained by whatever the outcome might be. She stepped quietly even closer to the door. She was beginning to wonder why the drink she'd ordered wasn't making her drunk. In fact, she was fully alert and ready for action. She could feel the vibrations in the floor as they went back to walking towards her. She could feel them closing in. 

_No! I can't let them see me like this! I'm such a disappointment and a disgrace! Wheeljack probably hates me for killing Snowflair, and Knockout probably hates me for not killing anyone else. I never made a good decepticon, and I certainly wasn't good enough to be an autobot. They probably want a fight...I'm ready for a fight. I don't know if I can take them both, but I know enough about them to use their weaknesses to my advantage._   


"Come on, Stormshift, if that's you under that mask. We just want to talk." Wheeljack said, secretly signaling to Knockout to flank her from the left side.   
  
"It's probably not her." Knockout whispered to Wheeljack. He then stepped closer and asked, "Now can you take your mask off to prove my clearly judgement impaired  _friend_ here that you're not who he thinks you are so we can all get this over with and go about our evenings?"   
  
"No." She snapped back as the two mechs stepped closer from either side. She did a backflip and landed on a nearby table on all fours, staring them down and preparing to draw her blasters.   
  
Knockout froze for a moment and spun around, narrowing his optics at her as his memories flashed back to a little sparkling with the same mannerisms and evasive maneuvers telling him 'no' when he had told her to take a decontamination bath after getting into some chemicals he'd kept around the medbay. Being slightly intoxicated, he almost thought that he was back in that time and place, and so he sternly barked out, "Young femme, you are going to sit in that decontamination bath until I can see my reflection's reflection in your finish! Now move!" 

Wheeljack shot Knockout a funny look, while Stormshift froze, her mind flashing back to that exact time and place and her instincts kicking in before she could tell them not to. She froze up, not sure of how to respond. She didn't get a chance to reply however, because Wheeljack grabbed her by the arm.   
  
She quickly reached out and scratched the hand that was holding her arm, causing him to release his grip and shake his hand in pain and annoyance. "Yep. I'm pretty sure that's her..." Wheeljack said as she leaped over his head and landed on a different table. 

"I got her!" Knockout called out, stumbling after her. 

At that, Stormshift transformed and flew towards the exit. Wheeljack jumped in front of her and she turned around, only to be grabbed out of the air by a giant pincer claw.   
  
" _I_ got her." Whirl exclaimed as Stormshift transformed, trying to escape his grasp. The leggy mech tightened his grip around her upper arms and shoulders and she writhed in his grasp. 

  



	2. Chapter 2

The small femme writhed and twisted in Whirl's grasp as if fighting for her life. A sea of memories flashed before her optics, her spark screamed with a dissonance and fury as all of her fears came crashing down on her at once. Being a victim in the past of severe trauma, neglect, and abuse, she couldn't help but feel the instinctual terror of being restrained that had wormed itself into her programming and had altered her at the very core of her being at such a young age. The mask over her faceplate was the only wall she could hide behind, the only physical thing that kept the bots from her past on either side of the war from fully recognizing her, and she knew that its removal would seal her fate. 

"Hold the frag still, kid! It's not like we're gonna' hurt you!" Wheeljack exclaimed, clambering to his feet and stepping closer to get a better look at her. 

"Is that really out of the question?" Whirl interjected. 

"Oh for the love of.... bring her here!" Wheeljack groaned, holding out his servos. 

Whirl rolled his singular optic and reluctantly held out the femme for his colleagues to examine. 

"We're not going to hurt you. If you aren't who we think you are, then I'm terribly sorry for the misunderstanding. Just hold still and let me get a good look at you." Wheeljack repeated, his tones a bit harsher as he directed a warning glare at Whirl. Knockout meanwhile watched from where he was standing, a bit of a silence having fallen over the cherry red mech as he watched the interaction play out. 

"Are you going to take off her mask or are we just gonna' sit around staring at each other? My arm is getting tired and the suspense is killing me. Plus, I'm pretty sure none of you would appreciate the outcome if my claws twitch." Whirl said. 

At that, Wheeljack turned around and looked at Knockout, as if he was silently asking him for the answers. Knockout folded his arms over his chest plating and silently nodded. Wheeljack turned back towards Whirl and the squirming femme trapped in his claws, and with shaking hands placed on either side of her delicate face, he carefully lifted the mask that was her only barrier to the outside world. Knockout let out an audible gasp, his jaw hanging open. Wheeljack frowned slightly, tossing the mask to the side before a slight, contented and self-satisfied smile worked its way into his expression as the glow of recognition lit up in his optics. 

"I knew it was you." Wheeljack said gruffly. "Welcome back from the dead, kid. You have a lot of nerve showing up around here." 

"Well frag me with an acid-dipped servo, it really is you!" Whirl exclaimed, sounding very sarcastic and unimpressed. 

Knockout continued to stare at the young femme, and she seemed to be glaring back at him. It was hard to tell where she was looking though with the cleansing fluid that was welling in the corners of her optics and how she seemed to stare at the floor in shame more than at any one of them directly. 

"How..." Knockout started, before shaking his head and stepping closer. 

"Can I shoot her now for committing suicide?" Whirl asked, quite peeved by the whole situation. 

Wheeljack and Knockout both let out a disgusted and horrified exclamation of "NO!", while the young femme's optics remained locked on the floor. 

There was an awkward silence following that, until Wheeljack broke the silence and asked, "So... where've you been?" 

Stormshift closed her optics, allowing the cleansing fluid to silently fall down her faceplate. 

Knockout quickly butted in with, "How did you survive? NONE of our ships were able to trace your signal! Do you have any IDEA how long we looked for you? For any sign of you? For anything that was left? After everything that happened, and you think you can just come walking back in here as if nothing ever happened and everything's okay? And you think that's okay?! To put a gun to your helm, and then disappear for three vorns. THREE VORNS, STORMSHIFT! And yet, by some miracle you were alive and you never cared to write back home? I can't.....You.....DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY BOTS SUFFERED IN YOUR SELFISH LITTLE ESCAPADE ON BOTH FRAGGING SIDES?!!!" 

The red sports car stepped forward in a rage, and Wheeljack held out a hand as a divider between the former decepticon medic and the tiny femme who was now limp in Whirl's claw. "Knockout..." 

The mint green and indigo-tinged black femme vented softly, her voice choked back through her tears. "I....knew you'd be mad at me." she said, shame and fear and pain and years of regret coming out in her voice. 

"MAD?! MAD?! YOU THINK I'M MAD? Oh no, Stormshift. I'M FRAGGING LIVID!" Knockout screeched. 

"And I thought I'd be the first to go ballistic here..." Whirl commented. 

Stormshift let out a tiny wheezing sound from her vocalizer as her frame spasmed in Whirl's grasp from the trauma and the tears. "I knew no one would want me back..." she said, her crystalline and soft voice echoing through the establishment in the silence that had fallen. All eyes had now turned towards the four bots, watching for their next move. 

"Want you back? Stormshift....no one ever wanted you to leave..." Knockout replied, his voice now softening a bit to tones that more readily conveyed the pain he felt of having lost her and the relief and denial of seeing her alive. 

Wheeljack looked back and forth between Knockout and Stormshift, raising an optic ridge at the medics words. 

"I had to. I couldn't...I couldn't choose a side. Watching everyone I loved on either side at each other's throats every day, it was madness. It was torture. I never intended to be used as a weapon despite my original design. I hurt people....good people. I ki-k-killed Snowflair! I sabotaged so many plans on either side, never knowing who I was really working for. Believe me when I tell you this, that the day I left, I had every intent of ending my existence. I couldn't.... couldn't kill again. For either side. So I had to..." Stormshift said. 

Whirl narrowed his optic and lifted the claw with the femme in it around to where he could see her face. The leggy pale blue mech squinted at her in disbelief. "So basically you killed one bot and decided to throw a pity party and end your life?! And I thought I was the crazy one! Primus! Everyone lives and dies. And in a war, everyone kills. Everyone else in the war probably killed at least twice the amount of bots as you did, others a lot more. So what. There are far better ways to deal with that than choosing to end your own life because you can't end another's. Everyone you love has probably killed someone else in their time. What you pulled was not funny, and nobody likes you any more or less because of it. So grow up. You can't let one mistake be the end of everything." 

"Stormshift... I understand why you left, but.... leaving everyone in the dark?! That's not okay!" Knockout added to Whirl's speech. 

"I didn't know I was going to be pulled through a fragg'n space bridge at the last second and be cut off from all communication with Earth!" Stormshift shot back. "I never asked to exist! I never asked to be brought into this fragged up circus of a universe, or to be tested on, shot at, and used against my will as simply a tool and a plaything for anything more than twice my size! I never asked for any of it, and do you really think that Snowflair's death was why I did what I did? OF COURSE NOT!" She paused, venting heavily. 

"I wasn't just following orders when I killed her, I was following my spark. I was forged a decepticon, and Ratchet was wrong. There never was any good in me to begin with! I killed a bot in cold blood because I wanted to! I hated her! Megatron's test was just an excuse, and I'd kill a hundred Snowflair's if I had to in a sparkbeat! The real reason I did it...why I left... was because I couldn't live another day as a tool in anyone's twisted game. I was done being used, ordered about, held against walls, thrown across rooms, electrocuted until my spark gave out into stasis! And I was done trying to fight the bots who...who did that to me." She continued, glancing for a brief moment at Knockout when she said that last line. 

"I couldn't be a decepticon, and I couldn't be an autobot. There never was room for me in the war or in any world. I would not be alive if someone had not decided at the last second to kidnap me and bridge me across several galaxies and force me to promise I'd never attempt something like that again!" Stormshift finished. 

"Sssshhhhh." Whirl hissed, bringing his claw closer and holding the small femme closer to his frame, patting her on the head with his free claw. He wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or genuinely comforting, but he felt that at that moment maybe that was the right thing to do. Stormshift whimpered softly, allowing the cleansing fluid to stream down her face as the larger bot held her close. She relaxed, his effort of comforting her actually having some affect on her. Whirl released his grip around her shoulders so that he could better support her weight, having a feeling that she probably wouldn't try to run away now that she was found out. 

"Now that we're all reacquainted, why don't we catch up over some more drinks?" Wheeljack suggested, pointing over towards their booth in the corner. 

"Yeah... that would be nice. Primus, I need a drink." Stormshift replied, earning a startled gasp from Knockout and a chuckle from Whirl. Wheeljack narrowed his optics. 

"Stormshift, as your ehm... former physician and caregiver, I would have to say that drinking is far out of the question for a mech your age and stature." Knockout quickly interjected. 

Stormshift turned around in Whirl's arms and shot Knockout a mischievous grin, saying, "Is that so? Because Wheeljack already bought me a drink." 

"Wheeljack!" Knockout scolded. 

At that, Wheeljack shrugged and said, "What? I asked Swerve to give her unleaded low grade. There's no way the kid could get even hyper off of that stuff." 

"What?!" Stormshift gasped out, giving him a look of utter betrayal. 

Wheeljack chuckled, and Knockout relaxed slightly. 

"Do you even remember how much time has passed since I last saw any of you?!" Stormshift yowled, climbing up to Whirl's shoulder and indignantly folding her arms as she perched near his wings. 

"Stormshift, five vorns hardly constitutes the recommended age for ah... taking in certain kinds of fuel." Knockout replied. 

"A lot can happen in three vorns!" She shot back. 

"And how old were you when you disappeared?" Wheeljack and Whirl asked in unison. 

"Primus...She wasn't even technically one!" Knockout replied, slapping his palm to his faceplate in exasperation. 

"I was eight earth years! That counts because I was technically born on Earth!" Stormshift countered. "That makes me 257 stellar cycles!" she proudly chirped. 

Knockout facepalmed again, harder this time. "Will you just take 'NO' for an answer?!" he growled, earning another chuckle from Whirl. 

"Tell you what, kid." Whirl said in a slightly devious tone. 

"Don't you dare...!" Knockout hissed! 

Wheeljack chuckled slightly. "It's good to have you back, kid." he said, smiling warmly at the femme perched on Whirl's shoulder. 

"It's....good to be back I guess. I don't know... I've made a lot of mistakes..." she replied, lowering her optics again and wiping cleansing fluid from her eyes. 

"I've made more mistakes than you could possibly fathom, and yet I don't go around putting a blaster to my head every time things get tough." Whirl replied. 

"You sure have fun putting the blaster to other people's heads though." Wheeljack replied with a snort. 

"I LIKE exploding heads. Is there something wrong with that?" Whirl said, crossing his arms over the turrets protruding from his large chestplate. 

"Yes." the other three all said in unison. 

"WRONG!" Whirl snapped. "There's just something wrong with the rest of the world." 

"And you're just now noticing this?" Stormshift exclaimed. 

"Nah. I've known for awhile. Thing is, kid, people are gonna' hate you no matter what. It's best to hate them first and then ask questions later." Whirl replied. 

Stormshift crossed her arms. "I doubt that. If you hate everyone, then who do you believe in when everything in the world has gone wrong?" 

"Myself, of course!" Whirl said plainly. 

"It's obvious where that's taken you." Wheeljack cut in, rolling his optics at the leggy chopper. 

"Too many people have hurt me in my life for me to not believe in someone. I just....don't think I could believe in myself much. So I'll stick to believing in you three for now." Stormshift said with a warm smile as the last cleansing fluid tears began to fade away from her faceplate. 

"Have fun with that. Only thing anyone can predict about me is that I'm unpredictable and bound to disappoint." Whirl commented. 

"You haven't disappointed me yet." Stormshift countered. Knockout and Wheeljack laughed at her statement. 

"I haven't tried, but your standards must be so low that you literally cannot be disappointed by anyone." Whirl said. 

"You're talking to a bot who was used as target practice by eradicon drones." Stormshift replied with a sassy little smirk. 

"Who do you think put you back together after all of those times you provoked them?!" Knockout added with an expressive wave of his servo. 

"I never asked to be shot at once in my life!" Stormshift yelled back. 

Whirl reached up a claw and patted her on the helm. "You get used to it." he said. "That, and you learn to shoot them before they shoot you." 

"Do all of your solutions to problems involve shooting things, blowing things up, or exploding heads?" Stormshift teased. 

"I'm an ex-wrecker. It's a lifestyle." Whirl said. 

"Emphasis on the 'EX' part of it." Wheeljack mumbled. 

"I think we're all 'EX' something at one point or another." Stormshift offered. "I mean, look at us. I'm an ex-decepticon, Whirl's an ex-wrecker, Wheeljack is probably an ex something and Knockout....uhm...." She paused for a moment. 

"Ex decepticon." Knockout said casually, shifting his weight. 

"Wait...really? I mean...I know the war's over and all, and it's strange to see you three getting along but..." Stormshift said in surprise. 

"He was a coward and joined the winning team at the last second." Whirl said, receiving a very annoyed glare from Knockout. 

"It doesn't matter what side you were on or are on right now." Stormshift cut in as she hopped down from Whirl's shoulder. "Or at least, it doesn't matter to me." 

Knockout tilted his head slightly. "Well, I'm really quite flattered that you say that. The war is over after all, so it shouldn't matter..." he started, unable to finish his sentence before Stormshift ran up to him and tackled him around the waist. Knockout went stiff for a moment, raising his arms up and away from the tiny femme before awkwardly setting one on her back between her wings and patting her lightly. 

"Your faction doesn't matter because that never changed the fact that you were there from the moment I was first brought online, and I know it's been a rough road and I was probably the most insufferable thing you ever had to put up with, but I'm glad you were there from my very beginning." Stormshift said. 

Knockout smiled softly. "It's....it's good to have you back." he said, cringing slightly in her embrace. 

Stormshift released him after a moment and her face flushed blue slightly. "I'm ah... sorry if I scratched your finish..." she said. 

Knockout paused for a moment, looking down at the little femme he had taken part in bringing up all those years ago. Sure, he was a little irked that she'd hugged him without permission, but knowing that she was alive and well was enough to make him ignore his usual preferences. "Aww, come here, you!" Knockout said, scooping up the little mint green and black seeker in his arms and hugging her back. "I'll make an exception just this once." he added. 

The young femme smiled brightly and gently nuzzled him with her helm, and the cherry red mech had a flashback to the day that the young genetic experiment had been protoformed. Some things just never changed. 

"Alright, you got your hug. Now run along." Knockout said gently as he placed her on her feet, brushing an imaginary speck of dust off of her shoulder in an obvious attempt to reassure himself that she was indeed real and alive and that he had not had one too many glasses of high grade engex. Stormshift smiled up at him, her wide red optics blinking in almost a kittenish manner. Some of the original innocence in those eyes had faded with age, but he could still see that childlike wonder the femme had always held within her spark. Stormshift stepped back, smiling up at him as she realized that he did care about her after all despite her rough start in life. She then paused and turned, looking back towards Wheeljack and Whirl. Wheeljack was twiddling his thumbs and Whirl was just standing there awkwardly. 

Stormshift rushed at Wheeljack and hugged him tightly around the waist, taking him quite by surprise before the white, green, and orange mech affectionately grabbed her by the shoulders and rubbed his fist into her helm in a full on noogie. "Welcome back, kiddo." he said with a light smile gracing his slightly scarred faceplate. 

Stormshift released Wheeljack and smiled up at him, before she turned towards Whirl. "Don't think I've forgotten about you!" she said, stepping towards him. 

Whirl replied with a confused exclamation of "What?!" as Stormshift hugged him too around the waist. He was barely able to see her under his protruding helicopter-front-chestplate. Whirl responded by letting his arms fall loosely to his sides as he said in a bit of a snarky tone, "You do remember I was the bot who shot you down that first time the autobots captured you, right?" 

"Yeah. I know." Stormshift said, hugging tighter. "And if you hadn't, I would never have met Ratchet or Bumblebee or any of the others. So in a way, I owe you one. Plus, I've forgiven bots who've done worse than just shoot me. I just hope you all can forgive me for...you know." 

"I really don't deserve this." Whirl unenthusiastically stated. 

"Shut up and take the hug, Whirl!" Knockout scolded. 

"Technically I hugged her first, so isn't this going over my quota of hugs I can give in a day? I would advise you release me at once." Whirl half-sarcastically replied, patting Stormshift on the back with a claw slightly. 

"Aft hole." Stormshift commented with a smirk as she hugged him tighter to spite his words. 

"I always liked your sass. Reminds me of myself." Whirl replied with a little chuckle. 

Knockout shook his helm. "Let's hope she doesn't turn out anything like you in the end." 

"Well it's not like you were ever a stellar role model for her either!" Whirl shot back. 

Wheeljack huffed slightly. "Right, like I didn't catch you trying to teach her all the swear words you knew once." he said, raising an optic ridge at Whirl. 

"She already knew most of them surprisingly. The decepticons taught her well." Whirl replied with a shrug. "Plus, that wasn't the only thing I tried to teach her." 

"Oh, like you didn't do anything supposedly terrible that ended up accidentally rubbing off on her, Wheeljack?!" Knockout cut in. 

"Will you all just shut the frag up and acknowledge the fact that I'm right here?!" Stormshift blurted out. The three arguing mechs went silent, before they all started shooting accusatory glances at each other. 

Knockout's expression softened slightly. Wheeljack shook his helm and Whirl rolled his optic. This definitely wasn't the reunion Stormshift or any of them were expecting, but it was far better than what she had feared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to the Transformers Wiki, A Vorn is approximately 83 years. A Stellar Cycle is about 400 Earth days. So, in Cybertronian terms, Stormshift is still very young compared to the rest of her kind. The timeline of this story puts her at 257 Stellar Cycles, or approximately 346 earth years old.
> 
> Compared to the lifespans of most Cybertronians, Stormshift is approximately 3. That being said, Cybertronians do adapt and mature at a rapid rate and come into the world with a certain amount of innate knowledge and instinct. Stormshift probably came into the world with the knowledge level of a 16 year old human and rapidly adapted and acquired information throughout her years on earth. Her mental age on any given day ranges from 5 to 21.
> 
> I will heavily stress that I do not ship Stormshift with any of the characters shown in this story, because of the age difference and the fact that in my headcanons, certain characters practically raised her. That's why I didn't list relationships as a significant factor of this work because I don't want my readers expecting romance to be among the themes of this work. 
> 
> I truly believe that a story can be told with entirely platonic relationship dynamics while love is still a prominent factor in character interactions. While Stormshift is certainly old enough to seek out romantic relationships at her age, that is not the focus of this story and she is unlikely to have those feelings for Knockout, Wheeljack, or Whirl.


End file.
